I am a nineteen year old female, and here is the story of my DIY piercing horrors. I had my ears pierced first when I was born, and always loved earrings. In middle school I wanted them done again (which I ended up having to re-pierce, since I was careless and let them close up). In high school, I wanted a third hole in each ear. So far I've done all these at the mall, with a gun. When I graduated high school, I began to adore the stretching craze. So, I got myself some 14g acrylics (they were shaped like safety pins! So cute!) and happily started my journey.
At A Glance Author krys Contact krys@bme.anon When N/A As soon as I saw the results of these barely stretched lobes, I loved it, and wanted more holes to stretch. But being a lazy/poor college student and now knowing that guns are bad (after reading all about it here), I decided one night that I would pierce my own ear. They did it back in my mom's time, so why couldn't I do it too? I turned on some loud music and just shoved a safety pin in there... I probably should have used a more sterile needle but it was all I had at the time. It actually didn't hurt or bleed or anything, so I was rather pleased. I continued stretching the other ones, now just wanting more holes.
A few weeks later, I have a friend pierce me two more times with a safety pin. They all seemed to do fine, and I was loving my 9 holes (even planning more) until one day they just started doing funny things. The fifth one on the right side (which my friend had done) seemed to have a tube of tissue coming out of it. I never did figure out what it was (it almost looked like the scar tissue inside coming out), but I let it close up and it thankfully never caused me any more trouble. The one on the left side got horribly infected (which I figured was because of my jewelry choice, having sensitive ears and using old earrings that I didn't know where they'd been).
My friends told me I was crazy and it was because I pierced it myself, but the health clinic said it was probably just a reaction to the metal and gave me some ridiculously strong antibiotics. It cleared up and seemed to be perfectly normal for a long time. I also switched to acrylic earrings, which cooperated with my finicky holes a lot better than metal, and look really cool to boot.
Fast-forward 5 months. I notice a strange red lump above the previously infected hole, but think nothing of it. Several weeks later, I buy brand new acrylic earrings (by now my original holes are 8g and this one DIY is stretched to about 12g) and was going off on a trip. Sitting in the airport, I can't help but notice how much my ear hurt. I felt at it and to my dismay, found it swollen to at least twice the size. I took the piercing out, and it immediately started gushing green stuff. I ran to the airport bathroom to clean up, but there wasn't much I could do as for disinfecting methods.
Over the three weeks I was away, I used a topical triple antibiotic ointment. It continued oozing various colors of nasty stuff, but it eventually cleared up by the end of the trip. And left me with a really large swollen lump above it. Noticeable enough for friends to comment on how bad it looks, and not from up close.
I consulted various doctors, who all said the lump was a keloid, and I could do nothing about it but disinfect it all the time and hope for the best. It was affecting my other holes on my left ear, and I had to downsize them all from the swelling. After two more months of infection flare ups, I gave up and took the earring out (along with the other above it), hoping it would just close up and spare me the misery. I religiously cleaned and disinfected it multiple times a day, but to no avail. Even with no earring in it, it still bled and crusted over. The lump wouldn't reduce in size, even after trying every home remedy I could find, from crushed-up aspirin to tea tree oil or long soaks in hot water and sea salt.
But after all that I find it still swollen, and even getting bigger. I declared it wasn't a keloid, because it peeled and seemed to be somewhat of a nasty little pocket. One night when I was totally fed up, I decided to experiment, poking and prodding at it with a needle, and it popped and bled and all that unpleasant stuff. It did significantly reduce the size of it, but I still had a big ugly red lump in the middle of my lobe.
So in desperation and long Google-ings of my problem, I found one remedy I hadn't heard of before: hydrogen peroxide. Sounded like fun. I applied some to the lump with a q-tip, and it fizzled and burned.... And then it was gone. It took a few days to heal, but the lump was finally gone.
Months later, over a year since it first gave me problems, the holes still have not closed up. I occasionally put earrings in them, but take them out to sleep in. They have finally gotten to the point where they don't bleed or get infected randomly, but they are surrounded by quite a lot of scar tissue, making the area of my lobe a bit lumpy.
Moral of the story? Even the effects of guns aren't as bad as this. If you're going to try to pierce something yourself, use the proper tools and don't take it lightly.